COLWYN Bay have been rocked by the news that striker Rob Hopley will miss the rest of the season.

Hopley’s career was thought to be in the balance back in October after he suffered a serious knee injury against Witton Albion in the FA Carlsberg Trophy.

But the big frontman had been showing signs of good progress before he was told by a specialist this week he will need an operation – and that rules him out for the remainder of the campaign.

On the plus side, Bay boss Neil Young expects to have loan signing Danny Meadowcroft from Northwich Victoria on board for Saturday's game at Warrington, providing international clearance comes through.

And the Seagulls had a midweek boost when they beat Welsh Premier side Bala Town 1-0 in Tuesday’s friendly at Llanelian Road.

With a number of fringe players on from the start, including a debut for Fraser Ablett at left-back, Colwyn had the better of the first half and got the only goal of the game after 35 minutes when a grounded Tom McGill hooked the ball over the line from close range after Bala keeper Leon Bimpson had blocked an effort from Neil Black.

Earlier Bay stopper Chris Sanna had made a flying save to turn a free-kick from Ricky Evans round the post for a corner and Neil Fisher was unlucky with a chip which landed on top of the net.

At the other end Bay struggled to create too much despite having most of the possession, but Bimpson made a good double save from Black and McGill and also got down well to save shots from James Olsen and Ryan Williams before McGill made the breakthrough.

After the interval there were chances at both ends with Bay missing several, but Jimmy Kelly was very unlucky when his great shot from 25 yards rebounded back off the bar.

Loan signing Alex Titchiner, who was introduced at half-time, had a couple of good runs and fired a chance into the side netting before his game was cut short by an attack of cramp.

Young commented: "Considering we have been so short of match practice and training I was very pleased with the way we played. We used 18 players tonight and they all played their part. The only disappointment was that we didn't convert more of the chances we created – especially in the second half when we should have killed the game off."

Former club captain James Olsen played for 65 minutes in midfield and is to continue talks with Young this week over a possible move back to Llanelian Road.